The winter of 1959–60

I remember the snows of the winter of 1959–1960 while I was attending Appalachian State Teachers College in Boone. That winter of 1959–1960 set a standard for snow in the North Carolina mountains. Gov. Luther Hodges made a visit to survey the damage. They cleared enough of the baseball field on campus to make a landing pad for his and the National Guard helicopters.

They formed search and rescue teams with the ASTC students. Several were called upon to rescue at least one family. I was assigned to a crew, but they had so many volunteers that my crew was never used. Even though we would be supervised, they let only a few of us at a time go out in fear they might have to rescue us.

Boone had record snows that winter. The county was declared a disaster area. There was about four feet of snow and ice accumulated on the ground at one time.